I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to Drs. Anderson and White for the trouble they have taken in observing and noting the cases.1

ART. II.

On the Properties and Products of the Toot Plant of New Zealand.2 By W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.R.S. Edin., Honorary Fellow of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand, &c.

3

ALL the New Zealand species (4) of Coriaria appear to be more or less poisonous, the seeds and leaves especially being apparently the chief seats of the poisonous principle. The most usual poisonous form of the Toot plant-at all events in the eastern districts of Otago, which I visited in 1861-is the species that I have elsewhere described as C. Tutu, the C. ruscifolia of authors. Dr. Hector, however, informs me that in Otago C. thymifolia is considered the most poisonbus of all the New Zealand Coriariæ. C. arborea 5 appears also to possess in abundance the poisonous alkaloid of the genus, as it occurs in New Zealand.

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From the descriptions given me in 1861-2 of the action of the poison on man and animals [illustrations of which action I have supplied in my former Memoir in this 'Review'], I came to the conclusion that the said poison is of the nature of an alkaloid, allied to, if not identical with, the active poisonous principle of the European C. myrtifolia, viz., Coriamyrtine. If the poison of the New Zealand Coriariæ should yet prove so different from Coriamyrtine as to deserve separate nomenclature, I venture to propose for it the name Tutuine as appropriate, and under this name I will subsequently speak of it provisionally in this paper. Desirous of extracting or isolating this poisonous alkaloid, in

1 This paper was read before the Dundee Medical Society, 8th January, 1868. 2 Supplementary to a memoir "On the Toot Plant and Poison of New Zealand," in this Review' for July, 1865, p. 153. Additional details relating to the botanical characters of the "Toot Plant" and its allies may be found in the author's 'Contributions to New Zealand Botany,' London and Edinburgh, 1868, genus Coriaria, p. 83; and in his memoir "On the Toot Poison of New Zealand," Proceedings of Sec. D, British Association,' 1862.

3 Contributions to New Zealand Botany,' p. 84. 4 Letter of October, 1865.

Contributions to New Zealand Botany,' p. 84.

Referring to this opinion, Dr. Hector wrote me (October, 1865) as to the "supposed alkaloid, of the existence of which I have no doubt." Vide former paper in this Review,' pp. 162, 175.

order to render it the subject of physiologico-pathological experiment on the lower animals, and so to determine the character of its toxicological, and perhaps also therapeutic, action, I not only brought home considerable quantities of the dried plant, which were placed in the hands of a competent anaİytical chemist, but I sowed under glass in the spring of 1863 Toot seed collected in Otago of the seasons 1861 and 1862. None of these seeds, however, came up; whether because of their age, or because they were not previously steeped in warm water, as was successfully done subsequently in the case of "Goai seeds (Sophora tetraptera Ait.)," I have insufficient data for determining. Unfortunately all my efforts, and those of Professor Murray Thomson, failed in their main object-the elimination in a separate form of the Tutuine.

The government analyst of Otago, however, Mr. Skey, appears to have been more successful, with the greatly superior local advantages at his command.3 He professes to have succeeded in extracting the "true alkaloid," which is supposed to be the source of the poisonous action of Toot. He failed to separate it by any of the recognised "standard processes" for the extraction of poisonous organic alkaloids; and succeeded only by means of a new process, wherein dry sulphate of soda was the prime agent of elimination. He obtained the Tutuine, however, in too small quantity to be available for experiment on its chemical composition or its physiological or toxic action. He found it in the leaf in as large quantity as in the ripe fruit. It is described as a very bitter principle, having "a pure bitter taste of great persistency" when dissolved in water. These experiments of Skey's are, however, far from being complete or satisfactory, though they will prove serviceable in paving the way for others of a more exhaustive kind.

In Otago, Tutuine is supposed to be analogous in its action to strychnine "it has been used in epilepsy with supposed success" (Buchanan). In truth, however, nothing can yet be said to have been determined regarding its physiological or therapeutic action. It has yet to be proved whether it will be serviceable in medicine at all. My friend Dr. Irvine, of Nelson, says that Belladonna is the antidote of the Toot poison, but there is no sufficient evidence that this has been established as a fact. There are anomalies in the toxic or pathological action of Toot, which, however, are not singular, but find parallels in the action of Amanita muscaria L., and certain other neurotic poisons; anomalies that have not yet been made the subject of proper

Vide former paper in this Review,' pp. 175-6.

Vide author's 'Contributions to New Zealand Botany,' p. 73.

3 Jurors' Reports of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865,' p. 428.

study by the lights of modern chemistry, physiology, and pathology.

The Toot plant continues to be, in all parts of New Zealand, the fertile source of accidents, fatal to man, as well as, on an enormous scale, to cattle. Fortunately, in the neighbourhood of the larger towns, which are surrounded by cultivation, Toot has now been more or less cleared away; and the accidents referred to are, therefore, becoming in and around these centres of cultivation more and more rare. This is especially true of the older towns, such as Nelson. But in and around the socalled "mushroom" towns, or 66 canvas towns, that are constantly springing up in new and wild districts, following the successive gold-finds and gold-fields, the case is very different. Every now and then I still find recorded in the public prints the details of some coroner's inquest-generally relating to the death of a child, arising from eating some part of the plant. The jury generally requests the coroner " to bring under the notice of the proper authorities the very dangerous properties of the plant, with the hope that steps would be taken for its total eradication," which is indeed the only complete or certain means of preventing such accidents. The following newspaper account of one of such poisonings illustrates, sufficiently for present purposes, the general circumstances of such accidents. "An inquest was held at Cambridge [Waikato district, Auckland province] on the body of . . . . . a little girl about four years and a half old. . . . . It appears that the child, while playing with some other children, picked up a piece of "Tutu" plant, which she ate of and offered some to her sister, who was a year older. The latter providentially did not partake of it, but her younger sister soon became ill, and was seized with violent convulsions; and, after lingering for about ten hours, died after much suffering. Dr. Sam presided at the inquest; and one of the witnesses who gave evidence was a Maori woman, who, having seen the symptoms displayed by the child, said she had eaten Tutu, and administered salt, which is invariably used by the natives, and with good effect if given in time." The death of an adult, a gold digger at Hokitika, in two hours, from eating Tutu berries, is also recorded in the 'Lyttelton Times' [of Dec. 14th, 1865].

In the earlier days of settlement the so-called berries were made to yield a juice and a wine to the natives and colonists;2 but the use of both seems to have been nearly entirely given up in consequence of the unenviable notoriety the Toot plant has acquired as a fatal poison. Dr. Geo. Bennett, of Sydney,

1 Southern Cross,' Auckland, New Zealand, October 28, 1865.

relates that the Auckland natives were careful to strain the juice of the berries, so as to separate the poisonous seeds. They soaked their baked fern-root in this juice, or they drank the latter by itself. The Bay of Islands Missionaries also "make an agreeable wine which tastes like that made from elderberries."3

Simmonds says, "The New Zealanders used to prepare a Seaweed jelly called 'Tutu;' but, like many other articles formerly employed by the natives, either as food or delicacies, it is now seldom or never seen. The preparation was, I am informed by Mr. Chas. Hursthouse, chiefly confined to the natives along the northern shores of Cook's Straits." My friend, Mr. Simmonds, here evidently confounds two quite distinct substances, and he is not the first compiler that has done so, viz., the jelly of a Seaweed, of the nature of "Carrageen," and the juice of the berries of the "Tutu" [species of Coriaria]. I have elsewhere shown that New Zealand contains at least one marine alga capable of yielding a jelly of the "Carrageen" class; and in my former paper in this 'Review' I referred to the association of the juice of the Toot berry with seaweed jelly as a delicacy of the blancmange order. Dr. Thomson says, "Almost all the seaweeds were occasionally eaten" by the natives; but this must have been after the manner of our " Dulse." In another part of his work on New Zealand, he remarks, "Several.... seaweeds are edible; one of the latter, with the juice of Tutu berries, is converted into a jelly." 198 I am somewhat at a loss to determine what amount of credence to give to some of Dr. Thomson's assertions as to the food of the natives; for in the same place he mentions lichens as edible, a fact whereof I have elsewhere found no record. 10

All the New Zealand Coriariæ appear to abound more or less, and in every part of the plant, in Tannic acid, or in some of the allies of this acid-some, perhaps new, astringent acid, belong

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1 Vide paper by author on "Otago Ferns," Trans. Botanical Society of Edinburgh,' vol. ix, p. 40.

2 Dieffenbach (Travels in New Zealand,' vol. ii, p. 50) says that the Maoris drink the juice unfermented; a statement which contradicts that made in my former paper in this Review,' p. 161.

3 Wanderings in Australia and New Zealand.'

4 Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances,' p. 216.

5 l'ide paper by author on New Zealand Carrageen," Trans. Botanical Society of Edinburgh,' vol. ix, p. 137.

6 Pp. 161-2.

7 Story of New Zealand,' vol. i, p. 19.

Ibid., p. 155. The juice obviously, however, only imparts flavour, taste, and colour; it does not assist in the formation or “ setting" of the jelly.

9 Ibid., p. 155. "Several Mosses, Fungi, Lichens, and Seaweeds are edible." 10 I wrote to Dr. Thomson on this subject in 1862, but never received a reply. I have failed also in other quarters in eliciting information on this point.

ing to the tannic series. Astringent principles abound equally in C. arborea, the "Tree Toot," and in the more familiar herbaceous Toot (C.tutu). Hence the economic properties of the former promise to be the same virtually as those of the latter. In the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865 (Nos. 724-5 of Catalogue') specimens of Tannate of Quinine were shown, the tannic acid whereof was prepared from the indigenous "Toot." Astringent principles seem to pervade the genus Coriaria wherever distributed. The root of the European form C. myrtifolia is largely used for tanning purposes in Russia; and there is every reason for supposing that some at least of the New Zealand species may be applied to similar purposes.

Škey has made the Tannin of the Toot plant of Otago the subject of careful experiment. Among his results are the following:Tannin abounds in the following parts of the plant :-Leaf, root, calyx, seed, flower-stalk, old wood and its pith. The parts of the plant richest in tannin are, in the order of their richness,1. Young leaves = maximum, from 0.30 to 2:08 per cent.; average, 1.35 per cent.

2. Old shoots.

3. Root.

4. Old wood.

The per centage is much higher in the dried than in the fresh state, varying from 2:14 to 8:32 (average 4:45) in the former. There is no perceptible loss of tannin by drying the plant at 130° to 150°, whence it is inferred that the small branches could be dried and stacked like oak-bark without losing any of their tanning properties. So abundantly does Toot contain material available for tanning, and so common is the plant in many, if not most, parts of the colony, that it is strongly recommended to the notice of the local tanner as a competitor to, or substitute for, the materials currently in use. In reference, however, to any future applications of Toot-products in the arts or in medicine, it must be borne in mind what I have had occasion to point out in reference also to the indigenous Flax (species of Phormium), that future permanent market supplies must depend on the cultivation of the plant, inasmuch as the wild plant is rapidly hastening to its inevitable doom-scarcity or extinction -in that "struggle for existence" that long ago began with the hardier immigrant weeds of Europe.

Skey's experiments leave many points yet undetermined in the natural history both of the poisonous and astringent principles of the New Zealand Toot plant, and inter alia:

1Jurors' Reports of New Zealand Exhibition of 1865,' p. 427.

2 "On the Obstacles to the Utilisation of the New Zealand Flax" (Phormium tenax). 'Seemann's Journal of Botany,' vol. v, 1867, p. 342.